Are Black LGBTQ people disproportionately vulnerable to COVID-19? Are they more hesitant about getting vaccinated? What about LGBTQ immigrants, or older LGBTQ people?
Unfortunately, we have little public health data with which to answer these important questions. A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, we still lack basic information on how it is affecting LGBTQ people.
This need not be the case. Sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data collection is fairly wonky, but super important.
If public health systems don't count us, we don't count. While there are still problems and several lawmakers have requested an audit of the state health department, California has been a leader on collecting SOGI data in health care settings, and since